Friday, July 26, 2013

Update on our energy saving solar panels!

It's been over six months since we had our solar panels installed on our home. I told you about this and how they worked here. I posted a picture recently on Instagram of our current electric bill and many of you had said you were curious about whether we were actually saving money.

So, I wanted to let you all know whether we are actually saving money and if it has really been worth it for us to purchase these solar panels on our house.

First of all, it's been fun every month getting our electric bill since getting the panels hooked up. Yes, fun! A little scary - to see if they are actually producing enough energy for our 2400+ square foot house to stay cooled without actually costing anything. Of course, being that they were hooked up in January we didn't expect to have a bill then. But, every single month this is how much we owe on our bill - $5.44 for the service. And, we are told by our city that at the end of the year, we fill out a form and turn it in and they reimburse us for all the extra energy that we produced above what we supplied for our home. Yippee! So far, we're only paying the service charge and that's it - even with our air conditioning running in the summer. Has it been worth the cost of them? Well, yes, I'd say it has. They ARE a big expense up front and I will admit that a big chunk of what I am earning right now is paying these solar panels off as soon as we can. But, we got a HUGE rebate from our city - about 1/3 the cost of the panels was reimbursed to us. We have sat down and have figured that we can pay off the loan we took out to purchase them in about 18 months or so - give or take a few months. That's pretty good and the interest rate is SUPER low that it hardly is costing much extra. The return on investment? It's about 5-6 years before our investment should pay for it. And how much are we saving each month? So far, between $150-250 each month on our bill. That's HUGE!!! It's about $2400 a year averaged out of savings on our electric bill! So, YES YES YES totally worth it. They are a great investment. And all the money I'm saving each money I'm actually putting towards paying them off sooner. Win, win!

What's my next green project? Well, my city recently introduced a new "go native" project where they will reimburse us $1 per square foot to remove our lawn and plant native plants in our front yard up to $1000!! Woohoo! I'm meeting with the city this week to see if we can qualify. Our front yard is a BIG waste of money to water, in my opinion. That is the next area of savings I'd like to see improve...does your city offer any solar or green living rebates and incentives?P.S. If you are interested in green living and savings, follow my Organized Green Living Pinterest Board.

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